The Mindful Hack is a Web log of Denyse O'Leary, co-author of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (HarperOne August 2007). The Mindful Hack publishes information of interest on the relationship between the mind and the brain. O'Leary also publishes the Post-Darwinist, which keeps up with the intelligent design controversy.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Monks lead protest for civil rights in Tibet

I've written before about the beating Buddhist monks have taken while opposing oppression in Myanmar - and now they are opposing oppression in Tibet.

They hope to draw attention to the problem due to the fact that the Olympics were awarded to China this year.

Here's Canada's John Fraser's harrowing but instructive take on why the Chinese government has such a problem with civil rights.

Each of the condemned men also had an armed PSB officer beside them, holding on to them either by the shoulder or at the neck. The prisoners' hands were tied behind their backs and they clearly had been beaten up. For the passengers on the right side of the bus, there was only a window glass and less than a foot distance between them and the condemned men. Never before and never again, probably, would they have such a close encounter with the Chinese justice system. One of the condemned looked up, almost disinterestedly. One eye was so bloodied it was completely shut, but with the other eye he and I made contact for a couple of seconds. As I write this on Good Friday, I can see his face so clearly that it unshrouds him and makes my soul shiver.

"They are about to be executed, aren't they?" a passenger asked after the truck finally made it past us and we were rolling again.

[ ... ]

The rest of the trip to Beijing was very quiet, but less than 24 hours later they were all back to shopping their brains out.

I excerpt this just so you know what you are going to read.

I sometimes run into Western Christians who think we invented taking a stand against tyranny, but there are many brave people in the world, including these monks.

And China is a materialist tyranny. Fraser writes,

When you have a gruesome gauleiter like Zhang Qingli, first secretary of the Communist party in the "Autonomous Region of Tibet," telling the Tibetan people that the Communist party is "like a parent" to them and that "it is always considerate about what the children need," and then segues into a studiously inflammatory claim that the "Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans," you get a wee glimpse into the sick spiritual territory the party has always staked out for itself along with all its dubious claims of its "inalienable rights" to guide the masses.

By the way, Maclean's, which published John Fraser, is our century-old Canadian magazine that is standing up to the tyranny of Canada s misnamed "human rights" commissions, under which it has been recently charged.